Univoip

"NA"

UniVoIP is a premier business VoIP and hosted PBX provider offering high-speed internet connectivity and any-distance phone service in one seamless self-serve solution. UniVoIP brings you the best in business VoIP technology with state-of-the-art IP-Tone phone solution.

UniVoIP provides a virtual hosted business telephone solution with full Key System functionality. In addition to dedicated Internet connectivity, our solution offers enhanced networked voice services such as auto attendant, mobile twinning, single or multi-site extension dialing, directory services, unified messaging and centralized management. By offering a simple web interface an administrator or an end user can access and personalize the company's telephone system.

UniVoIP's integrated solutions deliver many significant benefits to the small business including cost savings, control, and customization capabilities for an organization's individual needs.

UniVoIP is Los Angeles-based VoIP company that specializes in 'simplifying communications' — that means they offer Internet, VoIP, and Fax service. UniVoIP is their name, though, and this is Voipreview.org, so I'm going to review their VoIP service. Got it? Good.

Review of UniVoIP's pricing structure

When I checked out UniVoIP's website, they had one plan prominently featured on their homepage, "Calling Plans from $14.95 per month per employee."

That's UniVoIP's Standard offer: $14.95 a month per user for unlimited incoming calls and 2¢/minute outbound calls. With Standard, you also get an auto attendant and other essential phone system features. The only thing you don't get with UniVoIP Standard is a voicemail account (that's $5 extra) and multiple phone lines (basically $5 for each concurrent call. And don't worry, using a hosted PBX means that you'll ).

With Standard, you can also get free phones with approved credit, an account that uses more than 5 users, and a 3-year contract.

UniVoIP's other plan type is Unlimited. With UniVoIP unlimited, you pay $34.95 a month per user for unlimited inbound and outbound calling, plus the ability to place simultaneous calls and a voicemail account per account. You can also get a fax line for as low as $2.75 a month (although you have to have at least 20 users to get that price).

You also have to have a T1 connection to use unlimited calling. UniVoIP can supply that if you're in California (although they don't disclose how much this costs on their website).

UniVoIP Special Offers

When I checked, UniVoIP had several promotions on their site. They didn't have an expiration date when I checked, so they may/may not still be active when you check them out.

UniVoIP Small Business Package

For businesses with fewer than 10 users (<10 users, mind you!), UniVoIP offers you special price per user: $29.95 a month.

That's $30 a month for all the system features of Unlimited, broadband access, and one phone line per user. You can add a voicemail inbox for $5 a month, an Auto Attendant for $10 a month, and a UniFax line (which is inbound and outbound faxing with a direct-dial number) for $14.95.

Requirements for UniVoIP Small Business Package

You have to meet UniVoIP's credit requirements and pay your first month up-front. You also have to buy Mitel 5212 IP phones, which run at $159/each. So, it can be a hefty cost to set up, but the savings after setup are substantial. (Remember, you're getting broadband internet and phone calls for $30 a month per users. Essentially, you'll be getting Internet for free).

Phone + Data for 20 users

If your business has 20 phone users, check out the Phone + data package. With the UniVoIP promo code Business 20, get 20 phone users with 20 mailboxes for 20 extensions and 20 fax connections. You also get a dedicated T1 internet connection, and unlimited inbound minutes for $699/month.

However, to get this deal, you have to be a new client in Southern California and you cannot combine it with any other offer. Also, UniVoIP doesn't say how much it costs to call out. But, if you're looking to set up a small call center, Phone + data may significantly cut your start-up costs.

BOGO with UniVoIP

You can also get a free ($175 value) Mitel 5212 IP Phone when you buy one througn UniVoIP. The promo code is mitel.

Like the phone + data plan, you have to be a new client. Unlike the data + plan, you have to have a 24-month contract.

6000 Free Minutes

This is UniVoIP's most straightfoward offer: 6,000 free, shared, outbound minutes for your first three months of service. You do have to be a new client, start with 5 or more users, and sign up for a 2-year contract in order to qualify.

Overall Rating of UniVoIP's Pricing Structure

UniVoIP Unlimited plan is in the middle of the road when it comes to unlimited plans; UniVoIP Standard is among the cheapest of entry-level VoIP services.

And while you don't pay for feature add-ons (a favorite price-cutting technique of other VoIP companies), you do have to pay for a voicemail inbox (with Standard). If you pool the number of minutes you use with your entire office (if you're on Standard), don't spend more than 1000 minutes/user/month on outbound calls. That'll make up the difference between Unlimited and Standard.

Review of UniVoIP's features

UniVoIP has 36 advanced features with their Standard plan. Some are less exciting and less useful than others, but UniVoIP has all the necessary VoIP features for a hosted PBX phone system. That gets them 3 stars and the comprehensive list gets them the rest of the way.

Especially helpful are UniVoIP's "groups" system: with the group's setup that UniVoIP offers, you can login/log out to groups as you need to use them and set up various rules for the group. Will all the phones ring? Use Broadcast Groups. Need callers to be able to find anyone when their contact is unavailable? Call Pick-Up Groups will work well.

UniVoIP's Reliability

Unlimited Equipment Warranty

99.7% SLA

Free Support

Unlimited Equipment Warranty from UniVoIP

Basically, if you buy your equipment from UniVoIP, it's covered by a lifetime guarantee.

99.7% SLA with UniVoIP

A 99.7% service level agreement means that for the service term, you will have service 99.7% of the time.

So, if UniVoIP's network is down for two or more hours per month (service providers use these hours to upgrade their system and run tests), you'll recieve a credit to your account for the amount of time your network was down.

Usually, SLA's have some pretty important caveats and terms of use. Unfortunately, UniVoIP doesn't publish their terms and conditions on their website, so there's no way of knowing what UniVoIP wants to use their SLA for. But it is a guarantee, which is more than most VoIP providers offer.

Free Support

UniVoIP further distinguishes itself from other VoIP companies in customer service and reliability because all technical and setup support is free. It's included in your subscription fee, so you can feel confident in the company if there's a problem.

Overall UniVoIP Reliabiltiy

UniVoIP scores 5 stars in reliability because it backs up its networks and its product with its own bottom line and monetary guarantees. I haven't heard anything about a UniVoIP outage; if you've had one, please let us know.

Customer Service and Sound Quality

UniVoIP gets a 3-star mark in customer service — not because I had a bad experience with customer service but because they don't fully disclose everything. They have some great guarantees but they don't explain how the guarantees work or what you need to do to qualify for an SLA-based refund.

However, UniVoIP does get kudos for having a well-developed and well-done knowledge center with downloadable pdf files (this means you can print and store them easily). For me, though, knowing how the service will work isn't as important as knowing what will be in the service that I am buying.

Since UniVoIP insists on pairing its VoIP service with a T1 connection, they provide for high call quality. However, I don't use UniVoIP so I really have no way of knowing the quality of VoIP calls with UniVoIP.

Let me know if you've had a good or bad experience with UniVoIP. Thanks!

Other Miscellanea About UniVoIP

UniVoIP offers Internet, Fax, VoIP and call conferencing services. However, it was difficult to tease information from their website on these services.

It's not because UniVoIP's website is poorly designed or anything; they just don't explain their Internet service, Fax Service, or Call Conferencing service. (They do explain how their VoIP service works). Is it from one of their partners? Or do they supply it themselves? I don't know; it doesn't say on their website.

This review was provided by one of our voipreview.org staff members and the content of the review is the opinion of our staff member. At the time of this review, UniVoIP was a paid advertiser, but we received no compensation specifically for this review.

Univoip Voip Review

Posted on: Oct 27, 2010

Pros
Professional
Quality
Great Customer Service

Cons
none

Why oh why did we not find Voip and UNIVOIP sooner. To think of all of the money we wasted with the old fashioned telephone company makes me cry. We have ben able to save enough money using Univoip to save layoffs we might have had to make otherwise.

We are a small company and though we make a lot of phone calls we are not very technical. No problem as the Univoip staff helped us get started seamlessly. From the time we signed up to the time we made our first call was less than two weeks. We love the fact that we can move extensions without calling in a pone guy who charges us $50 per hour.